Chertoff overhauls FEMA, rejects criticism

House report cites paralysis
The FEMA changes follow the results of an House inquiry that found unheeded warnings, poor planning and apathy in recognizing the scope of Katrina’s destruction led to the slow emergency response from the White House down to local parishes.

Overall, the House report said, the federal government’s response to Katrina was marked by “fecklessness, flailing and organizational paralysis.”

“Our investigation revealed that Katrina was a national failure, an abdication of the most solemn obligation to provide for the common welfare,” said a summary of the report.

“At every level — individual, corporate, philanthropic, and governmental — we failed to meet the challenge that was Katrina,” it concluded.

“In this cautionary tale, all the little pigs built houses of straw.”

The House findings mark the first of two congressional inquiries and a White House review of the storm response expected over the next six weeks.

On Monday, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee heard testimony about its own investigation into the storm response, examining potentially widespread abuse in federal emergency cash assistance programs for disaster victims.

Up to 900,000 of 2.5 million applicants received aid based on duplicate or invalid Social Security numbers, or false addresses and names, congressional investigators found.

“Everything that we have found ... confirms exactly the indictment of the House Republicans,” Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, that committee’s top Democrat, said Sunday. “It’s shocking and it is unsettling.”

Chertoff singled out
The House investigation criticized Chertoff, saying his overall responsibilities for the federal disaster relief during Katrina were fulfilled “either late, ineffectively or not at all.”

It concluded that Chertoff unnecessarily delayed naming a top federal coordinator for relief efforts and the activation of an internal disaster management group. More prompt action by Chertoff would have quickened the relief effort, the report said.

It also faulted Chertoff for not following a response plan specifically for catastrophic disasters.

In blistering testimony Friday, Brown said Chertoff had marginalized the agency’s role in the Homeland Security Department, which he said was focused more on fighting terrorism than preparing and responding to natural disasters.

A senior Homeland Security official said Chertoff earlier had been focused on ensuring the department could respond to all kinds of hazards, but that “regrettably, we were not through that implementation when Katrina hit.”

Among the planned changes at FEMA:

• Tracking trucks carrying food, water, ice, blankets and other emergency supplies by satellite to ensure they arrive at disaster sites quickly and with enough equipment.
• Sending FEMA employees to emergency shelters and other temporary housing venues to register victims for aid, instead of relying on victims to register by phone or the Internet.
• Creating a database of already-approved private contracting firms from disaster regions to remove debris and provide services faster.
• Creating “reconnaissance teams” to report disaster conditions to Homeland Security and FEMA operation centers within hours, and improving communication channels to ensure the information quickly gets to the president and Cabinet-level officials.
• Hiring up to 1,500 new full-time employees as year-round coordinators.

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